Yellow Barn Burner

Another lucky day in late November. Temps in the high 40s and dry roads meant another "last ride of the year" experience, 38 miles and up Yellow Barn Rd. in Dryden. It was odd to have frozen feet and a sweaty upper torso simultaneously, but I happily coped. No sunshine today and a moderate wind from the northwest.

On Buck Rd. I was scolded by a very old and stout beagle. Felt sorry for the old chap. I slowed down so he could bark at me some more, but he just didn't know what to do with me.

Today my raspberry Clif Gel tasted particularly nasty, like factory donut goo. I guess I'm a sucker for goo (or is it gu?), and it seems to work for me. I wish I had the Clif Mocha Gel instead, but I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel in the goo/gu/gel department. Perhaps I should try a Hostess Twinkie or a Snowball next time.

In Dryden I decided to take on Yellow Barn Rd., the steepest road that I know of in Dryden. This was only my second time up Yellow Barn, and this time I had a sense of where to work and where to restrain myself.

Here's the detail view of the Yellow Barn climb. The climb starts at 1028 ft, and it crests at just under 1800 ft. (1799 to be precise) 2 miles later, which means 390 ft. of ascent per mile for two miles. That's a pretty good burn, and the old ticker hit over 170 bpm twice on the climb.

My idle thoughts today were about how much it would cost to heat a house on the top of this hill, with the winds and colder temps. It was 43 degrees on top of the hill, while it was 47 degrees in Ithaca, and I'm guessing that the differential is far greater in the dead of winter.

Here are some screen shots of a video I shot of the Yellow Barn climb. I'll try to post the video of the climb in the next few weeks.

Trip Data:
Distance: 37.35 mi.
Time: 2 hours, 7 min.
Avg. speed: 17.6 mph
Max. speed: 40.6 mph
Calories burned: 2146 cal.
Vertical ascent: 2402 ft.
Avg. heartrate: 144 bpm
Road miles this year: 2840 mi.